<p>I'm going to be a high school senior in the fall and want to start working on my college admission essays during the summer. I really want to go to the University of Florida, so I really want to write a good essay, but I'm not too fond of the topic. Here it is:
In the space provided, please write a concise narrative in which you describe a meaningful event, experience or accomplishment in your life and how it will affect your college experience or your contribution to the UF campus community. You may want to reflect on your ideas about student responsibility, academic integrity, campus citizenship or a call to service.</p>
<p>I thought maybe I could write about how our failures shape us into better adults than our accomplishments, an example being how I didn't get cheerleading captain and how it motivated me to want to be a better leader in all aspects of my life. Help???</p>
<p>That sounds appropriate to me! Think about including positive results as well. In other words, the failure didn’t just motivate you…you actually did X, Y, and Z as a result of the failure.</p>
<p>And btw good job! thinking about the loss as being a source of future growth. I admire your resilience. :)</p>
<p>You (generally - I suppose there are ways it could be incorporated well) shouldn’t explicitly say “our failures shape us into better adults than our accomplishments.” It’s a platitude. If you believe this to be true, show it in your essay.</p>
<p>I agree with halcyonheather. Ideally, your essay will show that failure makes us better people so well that the reader comes of her own accord to this idea. That is persuasive. A platitude might be true, but it won’t be persuasive or set you apart from other applicants.</p>
<p>I took a philosophy class in school this year and I’m still in the habit of working my own universal ideas into my essays. Is it that aweful that I even mention it? Great link by the way, it helped a lot.</p>
<p>I also do not like that topic. It seems to be forcing you to talk about a smaller range of topics that a student might not passionately relate to. Yuck. Just stay true to yourself, but try to stand out. Tbh I’m struggling with essays as well.</p>
<p>How are you all able to see the essay topic? The online application currently says “Freshman Applicants: The freshman application for the 2013-2014 academic year is now closed.”</p>
Think about including positive results as well. In other words, the failure didn’t just motivate you…you actually did X, Y, and Z as a result of the failure.</p>